News/International

WASHINGTON - As speculation mounted about Western air strikes on Syria, a committee of U.S. bishops called for a political solution, and Catholic leaders in Europe warned military intervention could lead to an escalation of hostilities.

CAIRO - Two weeks after the churches he used to pray in were ransacked and burned in the Egyptian port city of Suez, Istafanos Youssif sat "searching for God" in a Cairo convent.

TORONTO - As if church bombings weren’t bad enough, northern Nigeria is also suffering from oversimplification in Western media reports. Reports of Islamist terrorism directed at Christians in Nigeria very often lack context and depth, said Bishops Anselm Umoren, auxiliary bishop of Abuja, Nigeria.

CAIRO - Egypt’s new interim government is doing nothing to prevent hate speech, which is inciting violence, said a prominent Egyptian Catholic leader.

WARSAW, POLAND - Calls for an Olympic boycott because of a Russian law banning “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” have become “highly politicized” and will not draw a response from the Russian Church, said an official of the Russian bishops’ conference.

VATICAN CITY - Dialogue and negotiations are "the only option for putting an end to the conflict and violence" in Syria, said Pope Francis and Jordan's King Abdullah II.

BEIRUIT - Syrian-born Melkite Catholic Patriarch Gregoire III Laham warned against armed intervention in his country, saying, "It has brought us to the tragedy we are now living in Syria."

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry were consulting with other world leaders about how to respond to Syria's apparent chemical weapons attack on civilians.

VATICAN CITY - As international leaders increasingly discussed the possibility of some form of armed intervention in Syria, the Vatican announced Pope Francis would interrupt the last week of his summer break in order to meet Aug. 29 with Jordan's King Abdullah II.

BEIRUIT - Cardinal Bechara Rai, Maronite patriarch, visited a predominantly Muslim city hit by explosions and called on political leaders to come up with a plan to save Lebanon.